Kew Gardens / 邱园

Kew Gardens is one of the most famous gardens in the world and it is situated in southwest London. Not only is it a World Heritage Site but one of London’s most visited tourist attractions. In fact, Kew Gardens has so many visitors that it even has its own special police force who patrol the grounds in a silver car.

邱园是世界上最著名的花园之一，它位于伦敦西南部。它不仅是世界遗产地，也是伦敦最受欢迎的旅游景点之一。事实上，邱园的游客如此之多，以至于它还有自己的特别警察部队，用银色警车在园区巡逻。

Kew Gardens is also a site of major scientific research. Kew Gardens is known to hold the largest and most diverse collection of plants and fungi in the world. Moreover, it has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungi specimens. Kew Garden’s library also has more than 750,000 books on botany and more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants.

邱园也是一个重要的科学研究地。邱园以拥有世界上最大和最多样化的植物和真菌收藏而闻名。而且，它还有超过850万份保存的植物和真菌标本。邱园的图书馆也有超过75万册关于植物学的书籍，以及超过17.5万份植物的印刷品和绘画。

The area in which Kew Gardens is situated had been popular with rich and powerful people for several centuries and some of these people built large houses and gardens there. Some of the buildings and structures remain from these times as these estates merged to form the park that we see today. Over time the park has been extended and its plant collection has grown and grown. Finally, in 1840, Kew Gardens became a national botanical garden.

位于邱园的地区几个世纪以来一直深受富人和权贵的喜爱，其中一些人建造了大房子和花园。这些时期的一些建筑和结构仍然存在，因为这些庄园合并形成了我们今天看到的公园。随着时间的推移，公园不断扩展，植物收藏也越来越丰富。最终，在1840年，邱园成为了国家植物园。

Visitors to Kew Gardens can easily spend a whole day walking around the park. Within the park there and many interesting buildings and structures which people can visit. Also, there are buildings in the gardens which are used purely for botanical research and are not accessible by the general public.

参观邱园的游客很容易就能花上一整天在公园里散步。公园里有很多有趣的建筑和结构可以参观。此外，花园里还有一些建筑专门用于植物学研究，普通游客不能进入。

The Palm House is possibly the most famous building in the gardens. It was built between 1844 and 1848 and was the first large-scale structure in the world to be made of wrought iron. All the panes of glass were hand-blown.

棕榈馆可能是花园里最有名的建筑。它建于1844到1848年之间，是世界上第一个用锻铁建的大型结构。所有的窗玻璃都是手工吹制的。

The Temperate House is twice as large as the Palm House and is now the largest Victorian glasshouse in existence. It is also famous for being the location where rubber trees were first successfully propagated outside South Africa.

温带温室的面积是棕榈温室的两倍，现在是现存最大的维多利亚时代玻璃温室。它还因为是橡胶树首次在南非以外成功繁殖的地方而闻名。

In the south-east corner of Kew Gardens is the Great Pagoda which was erected in 1762. This Chinese-styled building is 50m high and has 10 stories. Each roof was originally decorated with 80 large dragons which were said to be made of gold. If fact they were only made of wood and rotted away over time. The wooden dragons have now been remade and decorate the building as before.

在邱园的东南角有一座建于1762年的大宝塔。这座中式建筑高50米，共有10层。每层屋顶最初装饰着80条据说是金制的大龙，实际上它们只是木制的，随着时间的推移已经腐烂。现在木龙已重新制作，像以前一样装饰在建筑上。

The Hive is a multi-storey structure intended to draw attention to the life of bees. It is 17m tall and set in a wildflower meadow. The structure is made from thousands of pieces of aluminium arranged into a honeycomb shape. It was initially built as a temporary exhibit but was so popular with visitors that it has now become a permanent feature of the gardens.

蜂箱是一座多层建筑，旨在吸引人们关注蜜蜂的生活。它高17米，坐落在一片野花草地上。建筑由成千上万块铝制成，排列成蜂巢形状。最初它只是一个临时展览，但游客非常喜欢，现在已经成为花园的永久特色。

Unfortunately, not all Kew Garden’s buildings and structures have survived the passage of time. In 1913, suffragettes burnt down the Tea House. Kew Gardens used to have the tallest flagpole in the U.K. However, it had to be taken down in 2007 due to damage from the weather and woodpeckers. In addition, Kew Gardens lost hundreds of trees in 1987 due to a huge storm.

不幸的是，邱园的所有建筑和结构都没有经受住时间的考验。1913年，女权运动者烧毁了茶馆。邱园曾经有英国最高的旗杆。但由于天气和啄木鸟造成的损坏，它在2007年被拆除了。此外，1987年一场大风暴让邱园失去了数百棵树。